In sub-Saharan Africa, more than one in three adults cannot read and 22 percent of primary aged children are not in school. A staggering 48 million youths ranging from ages 15 to 24 are illiterate. In fact, 182 million adults are unable to read and write. Global organizations around the world mobilized literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa to provide children opportunities to develop and thrive.
Defining the Literacy Crisis
According to the African Library Project, UNESCO defines a literate person as someone who can read and write a short, simple statement about their life. Illiteracy denies people opportunity because it impacts the individual’s active citizenship, health, empowerment and the state of their poverty.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the World Literacy Foundation reports that 27 percent of people are illiterate. This is a part of the world where the cost of a children’s book can be a month’s salary. According to the World Literacy Foundation, millions of classrooms in Africa are located “off the grid” and have limited educational resources and no books.
The reading crisis has led to several strategies for improvement, such as:
- promoting a culture of reading
- encouraging parents to read to their children
- making books accessible in schools and improving initial teacher education through literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
Why South Africa?
South Africa was ranked last out of 50 countries in the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) study. The study tested reading comprehension of learners in their fourth year of primary schooling. The organization found that 78 percent of South African pupils at this level could not read for meaning. Consequently, this suggests the need for literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to a reading project called The Book Bus, Malawi is ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world. The country faces challenges in education because the student-to-teacher ratio is 120:1. The organization noted how the numbers impacted the vital role teachers play in the classroom. This is especially crucial as books are rare and very expensive in this part of the world, often costing more than one month’s wages.
As a response, The Book Bus reading project has partnered with two local schools in Malawi to support teachers with their literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the organization, the Book Bus Reading Team visits the schools weekly and listens to the children read.
Literacy Programs in sub-Saharan Africa
Room to Read began working in South Africa in 2006 as a literacy program. The program was directed toward:
- teacher training in literacy,
- school libraries
- reading materials across many official languages.
The organization has published materials in all eleven of South Africa’s official languages. Their literacy program aligns closely with the government’s educational policies and priorities. Currently, Room to Read in South Africa has reached 469 schools, 1,021 teachers and 362,180 students.
Room to Read collaborates with local communities and governments in developing countries. The program focuses on literacy and gender equality in education. Additionally, the nonprofit works with local villages to build schools and libraries filled with children’s books across South Africa. Room to Read also develops programs to support girls and encourage them to pursue an education.
Publisher Tom Maschler founded the registered charity, The Book Bus, in 2008. Mashchler began work with schools in Zambia, delivering books and working with teachers and volunteers to get more children reading. The program administered reading tests to each child and recorded the scores. Comparatively, the same test was conducted six months later and the results reflected an increase in literacy by an average of 35 percent.
Unique Methods to Literacy Programs
The World Literacy Foundation, under the initiative called Sun Books, designed and developed an app. That app is pre-loaded in a solar-powered device, containing digital content and e-books in English and the local language. The foundation provided the device to classrooms for early primary-level children, along with training for teachers about the device.
According to the foundation, the use of the device is effective regardless of internet or electricity. In territories like Uganda, where only 27 percent of the population has access to electricity and has limited internet access, this is particularly vital.
The Book Bus promotes the image that choosing the right books is crucial to ensure the books are relevant and engaging to each child. Accordingly, the program aids the children as a literacy program in sub-Saharan Africa. It also provides the children access to new worlds and helps expand their knowledge.
How Literacy Promotes Change
Each year, Book Aid creates and supports thousands of school libraries with the belief that books have the power the change lives. This belief is the foundation of their vision, mission and the values which guide the organization.
Additionally, Book Aid provides aid from primary school to university, aiding students and pupils with the books to help them succeed and reach their full potential.
Through collaboration with local governments, Room to Read educates communities on the importance of literacy. Furthermore, the program shows how to play a role in enabling students to succeed through literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
Above all, organizations such as these make it possible to help children combat poverty through literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa. Donations to help expand Room to Read, Book Aid, The Book Bus and several other global literacy programs can be found on their websites. The sites also provide information on more ways to take action.
– AnaCarolina Chavez
Photo: Flickr
The Impact of Literacy Programs in sub-Saharan Africa
Defining the Literacy Crisis
According to the African Library Project, UNESCO defines a literate person as someone who can read and write a short, simple statement about their life. Illiteracy denies people opportunity because it impacts the individual’s active citizenship, health, empowerment and the state of their poverty.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the World Literacy Foundation reports that 27 percent of people are illiterate. This is a part of the world where the cost of a children’s book can be a month’s salary. According to the World Literacy Foundation, millions of classrooms in Africa are located “off the grid” and have limited educational resources and no books.
The reading crisis has led to several strategies for improvement, such as:
Why South Africa?
South Africa was ranked last out of 50 countries in the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) study. The study tested reading comprehension of learners in their fourth year of primary schooling. The organization found that 78 percent of South African pupils at this level could not read for meaning. Consequently, this suggests the need for literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to a reading project called The Book Bus, Malawi is ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world. The country faces challenges in education because the student-to-teacher ratio is 120:1. The organization noted how the numbers impacted the vital role teachers play in the classroom. This is especially crucial as books are rare and very expensive in this part of the world, often costing more than one month’s wages.
As a response, The Book Bus reading project has partnered with two local schools in Malawi to support teachers with their literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the organization, the Book Bus Reading Team visits the schools weekly and listens to the children read.
Literacy Programs in sub-Saharan Africa
Room to Read began working in South Africa in 2006 as a literacy program. The program was directed toward:
The organization has published materials in all eleven of South Africa’s official languages. Their literacy program aligns closely with the government’s educational policies and priorities. Currently, Room to Read in South Africa has reached 469 schools, 1,021 teachers and 362,180 students.
Room to Read collaborates with local communities and governments in developing countries. The program focuses on literacy and gender equality in education. Additionally, the nonprofit works with local villages to build schools and libraries filled with children’s books across South Africa. Room to Read also develops programs to support girls and encourage them to pursue an education.
Publisher Tom Maschler founded the registered charity, The Book Bus, in 2008. Mashchler began work with schools in Zambia, delivering books and working with teachers and volunteers to get more children reading. The program administered reading tests to each child and recorded the scores. Comparatively, the same test was conducted six months later and the results reflected an increase in literacy by an average of 35 percent.
Unique Methods to Literacy Programs
The World Literacy Foundation, under the initiative called Sun Books, designed and developed an app. That app is pre-loaded in a solar-powered device, containing digital content and e-books in English and the local language. The foundation provided the device to classrooms for early primary-level children, along with training for teachers about the device.
According to the foundation, the use of the device is effective regardless of internet or electricity. In territories like Uganda, where only 27 percent of the population has access to electricity and has limited internet access, this is particularly vital.
The Book Bus promotes the image that choosing the right books is crucial to ensure the books are relevant and engaging to each child. Accordingly, the program aids the children as a literacy program in sub-Saharan Africa. It also provides the children access to new worlds and helps expand their knowledge.
How Literacy Promotes Change
Each year, Book Aid creates and supports thousands of school libraries with the belief that books have the power the change lives. This belief is the foundation of their vision, mission and the values which guide the organization.
Additionally, Book Aid provides aid from primary school to university, aiding students and pupils with the books to help them succeed and reach their full potential.
Through collaboration with local governments, Room to Read educates communities on the importance of literacy. Furthermore, the program shows how to play a role in enabling students to succeed through literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
Above all, organizations such as these make it possible to help children combat poverty through literacy programs in sub-Saharan Africa. Donations to help expand Room to Read, Book Aid, The Book Bus and several other global literacy programs can be found on their websites. The sites also provide information on more ways to take action.
– AnaCarolina Chavez
Photo: Flickr
10 Crazy Facts About Desertification
What is Desertification?
Desertification can be defined as the degradation of land in areas that experience arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid climates. It is when fertile land becomes dry and unusable. Desertification is caused by a variety of human factors. These factors include unsustainable farming, clearing of forestation and trees, overgrazing and mining.
10 Facts About Desertification
The Impact of Desertification
Overall, as the rate of desertification increases, thousands of people are impacted every day. These facts about desertification clearly show how desertification has become a global issue. They are certainly driven by multiple forces. The United Nations has deemed it one of the greatest challenges for our environment.
– Logan Derbes
Photo: Flickr
The Impact of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance
The International Women’s Coffee Alliance aims to empower women to achieve sustainable, meaningful lives through international coffee communities. IWCA recognizes the integral part women play in both a business and an economic aspect. As such, IWCA believes women need to be involved in both family sustainability and economic choices. When this happens, multiple aspects typically leading to poverty in a community decrease.
“When women are fully involved, the benefits can be seen immediately: families are healthier; they are better fed; their income, savings and reinvestment go up. And what is true of families is true of communities and, eventually, whole countries,” states Kofi Annan, as quoted on IWCA’s homepage.
Strong Women = Strong Coffee
IWCA’s motto is “Strong Women = Strong Coffee: Connect. Empower. Advance.”
According to IWCA chapter manager Blanca Castro, “The chapters have very localized issues that they centralize their work around to be a collective force. The common denominator for the groups is that they are all mothers, daughters and workers and share many of the same challenges around the world, not just specific to coffee, such as the price of coffee but the also laws and customs that make women earning a dignified living that much more of a challenge.”
Now how is the IWCA taking action to implement and empower women?
IWCA Ethiopia
Strong Partners Build Economic Empowerment
IWCA is involved in multiple parts of the world, including Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Women in Coffee (EWiC) partnered with the International Trade Center, which brings platforms for corporations to empower companies to connect with women-owned supply companies. As a result, the EWiC and ITC are working together to build a foundation for the same goal.
The EWiC is one branch under IWCA. It moves to improve the economy and the importance of women within a community. Through the incorporation of women in international trade, IWCA believes that poverty within Ethiopia will soon be alleviated.
IWCA Burundi
Working Together Grows Quality and Premiums
The IWCA also has a chapter in Burundi, specifically in the regions of Ngozi and Kayanza where they have seen a growing impact of empowering the women of this region. Since their start in Burundi in 2012, there has been an increase in job opportunities for the community. Moreover, this has led to improved livelihoods based on coffee bonuses and pay raises.
In Burundi alone, there has been an increase in green coffee bags. In 2012, 94 green coffee bags were produced, as compared to 2,065 green coffee bags in 2017.
WCA-India
Building Awareness, Strengthening Communities
Coffee Santhe (Coffee Market) is held annually in India’s coffee capital, Bangalore. Santhe is a program that helps raise funds for communities. It also unites different states within India’s massive demographic to come together and learn how they can impact and improve their communities.
Santhe generates funds and provisions for children who are in government-run schools in coffee regions. These funds and provisions support their education. It also teaches them how they can impact their own lives and those around them.
The IWCA has a presence in 22 different countries. And it promotes economic sustainability by empowering women to enter the workforce of international trade, specifically through the coffee industry. Ultimately, the International Women’s Coffee Alliance believes by uniting different nations and closing the gender gap in the workforce, the issues of global poverty will disperse.
– Hannah Vaughn
Photo: Google Images
4 Ways to Reduce Poverty in Burundi
Burundi is a small country in Central-East Africa with a poverty rate of more than 60%. It is difficult for many Burundians to access basic necessities, such as clean water and health care. This is due to so many people in the country living on less than $2 a day. There are many ways to reduce poverty in a developing country. The following describes four essential areas to improve in order to reduce poverty in Burundi.
Health Care
Food or waterborne diseases, such as typhoid fever and hepatitis A, are common in Burundi. Health care spending in 2016, as a percentage of GDP, was 7.49%. The U.S., on the other hand, spent 17.04% of GDP on health care. Investment in the health care industry would only help reduce poverty in Burundi. Therefore, it would create jobs and improve the livelihood of Burundians.
The functionality of a society relies on good health. This is why investing in the health care industry spurs development. A disease, such as malaria, can hold individuals back from performing at work. It would be difficult for the more than 80% of the population in the agriculture industry to work if sick. In fact, about 81.5% of patients have to go into debt or sell a portion of their crops, land or livestock to pay for basic health care needs.
Education
Burundi spent 4.7% of its GDP on education in 2017. Investing in education can help increase profits in agriculture, which are minuscule. As a result, this can drive farmers to innovate and use efficient means of producing and storing crops for sale. Farmers in Burundi sell about 15% of crops for profit and eat the rest for survival. There are no long-term means of storage, so there is little reason to try to produce more crops; they would just spoil.
Education induces innovation and a more educated population. Provided they have the right tools, this leads to business developments. Agriculture accounts for more than 80% of all jobs in Burundi. This makes investing in other sectors, such as the power sector, appealing. With affordable and widespread electricity, farmers could afford better equipment, solar power, for example, to store and use energy when needed. As shown above, investment in education has a widespread effect on an economy, especially in a developing economy.
Infrastructure
In terms of GDP, Burundi grew little since 2015. However, investing and improving in various sectors is a good start to developing the country. This could result in the creation of jobs, the improvement of health and education and a reduction in poverty. Electricity, roads and bridges are areas that require growth. Subsequently, their development in Burundi would create jobs. For instance, jobs could emerge building schools, providing electricity to more than 90% of Burundians without electricity and supplying farming equipment to help increase productivity and wages.
According to Bertrand Badre, CFO of the World Bank, “Infrastructure is the backbone of any country, generating jobs, improving the quality of life for the poor and boosting economic growth.” Infrastructure creates jobs and therefore helps increase the profits of those employed in the industry. Additionally, the infrastructure helps those who would use public transportation and electricity for their occupation. Electricity access is only five percent. Therefore, increasing access would only help grow the struggling economy, thus helping to reduce poverty in Burundi.
Business
Burundi must also improve the business environment so that external investors and internal investors will view the potentially lucrative opportunity of producing products and services in the country. A stable and predictable business environment can form as a result of the government providing an incentive to entrepreneurs who are looking to expand to the country. Without government involvement, it is difficult to improve health care, education and infrastructure. In order to reduce poverty in Burundi, development begins with responsible governments that take initiative in helping its people.
– Lucas Schmidt
Photo: Flickr
Top 10 facts About Living Conditions in the Central African Republic
The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in Africa with 16 prefectures. The Central African Republic is among the poorest nations in the world even though the country has an abundance of natural resources. Roughly 90 percent of the population lives in poverty, with little access to food, decent housing, water or sanitation. One of the main causes of poverty is the ongoing conflict that shattered the country. This conflict caused the living conditions in the Central African Republic to deteriorate along with the way of life for many citizens. Here are the top 10 facts about living conditions in the Central African Republic.
Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in the Central African Republic
As the country currently stands as one of the world’s poorest countries, there is still a lot of work to do. However, there is still hope for the improvement of living conditions in the Central African Republic.
– Madeline Oden
Photo: Flickr
Top 5 Women Activists in Developing Countries
Top 5 Women Activists in Developing Countries
The founder of the Girls Not Brides movement in Rajasthan, northern India, Kriti Bharti prevented over 900 child marriages. Kriti established the Saarthi Trust in 2011 to pull girls from forced child marriages and to educate them on their societal rights. Bharti is both a social activist and a rehabilitation psychologist. She set up rehabilitation programs for the girls released from child marriage.The Girls Not Brides movement has forums that provide food, shelter and water for girls banished from their families. The forums also include educating girls on their societal rights and providing them with life skills such as sowing. Twenty-seven percent of girls in India marry before the age of 18 resulting in India being the highest country with child brides. The Saarthi Trust was the first organization in India to annul a marriage and annulled 31 other child marriages since 2012.
Poverty is a leading cause that resolves itself in child marriage. Usually, families marry off their young daughter to help alleviate finances; the younger the bride, the lower the dowry (a form of payment). Gender norms also play a key factor in child marriages. A girl is of lower value in general. Typically, females are not able to contribute to society because of this, leading their value to be held in household chores and motherhood. Moreover, a woman’s value is upheld in her benefitting her marital family more than her blood family. Thus, the family will usually educate their sons rather than their daughters.
The South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) takes local action against abuse towards children by providing shelter with food and water and by educating girls in jobs. The Sustainable Development Goals stated that India is striving to end child marriages and forced labor by the year 2030.
Malala is now a household name across the world. The youngest person awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014; she now uses her voice and her story to speak for the women around the globe who could not. “I tell my story not because it is unique, but because it is the story of many girls,” Yousafzai said.After she spoke out against education oppression towards girls in 2012, a Taliban gunman shot Malala in the head in 2012. Then, she began the Malala Fund. The Malala Fund now reaches six different countries; Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. In each country, it recruits female teachers and tries to bridge the gap between gender disparity in education. It also educates teachers and students on gender discrimination, teaches girls how to speak about their rights, gives free secondary schooling and campaigns for new policies advocating for girls’ education. The goal of Malala’s Fund is to give girls “12 years of free, safe, quality education.”
The Yes I Do project of Indonesia began with three girls advocating against child marriage in their village and country. Holida, Suci, both 18, and Ria, 16, advocated that the abuse’s of child marriage is everyone’s responsibility to end. The Yes I Do project strives to prevent child abuse and forced sexual acts due to the selling of young girls into marriage. The project exposes the effects that sexual abuse has and the ways it affects reproductive health.Through village forums and discussions, the girls highlighted with their fellow neighbors that they have the same rights as boys do. Through their voices, child marriage cannot go unnoticed. Now, when a girl is forced or marries young, people talk about it. This gives fire to Holida, Suci and Ria’s campaign. The girls plan on making a movie to take to other villages around their own. “We want everyone to know why child marriage is wrong so that girls everywhere can achieve their dreams,” Suci said.
Manal al-Sharif, an Iraqi woman, co-founded the Women to Drive movement bringing awareness to the oppression of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and bringing back the ability for women to drive. In 1957, Saudi Arabia decreed that women could no longer drive. In 1990, a large protest took place where 47 women drove around the country’s capital. Over 20 years later, in 2011, Manal al-Sharif started the Facebook campaign called Women to Drive to spread awareness of their oppression.Later that same year, al-Sharif and fellow co-founder, Wajeha al-Huwaider, recorded a video of themselves driving and speaking out against the difficulty of being a woman and commuting. In June 2018, King Salman issued a decree that Saudi women could obtain a driver’s license. Al-Sharif and the women advocating for years for freedom for their gender are making progress. Since the summer of 2018, women can take to the road, something they were not able to do for 62 years.
The Lybian Women’s Platform for Peace (LWPP) is an organization that puts pressure on the government to give opportunities to women to uphold sociopolitical places within government and society. Zahra’ Langhi is a co-founder and feminist activist who started speaking out in 2011 when Muammar Gaddafi’s reign ended after decades of abusing his power over the country. The leading effects after the uprising resulted in 35 women joining together to form LWPP. The state of Libya is dangerous and unbalanced, especially for women advocating to eliminate corruption in politics. Langhi never gave up her voice and continues to speak for compassion and understanding to infiltrate her country. “We need to start acting as agents of compassion and mercy. We need to develop a feminine discourse that not only honors but also implements mercy instead of revenge, collaboration instead of competition, inclusion instead of exclusion,” Langhi said.
These five women activists in developing countries spread their knowledge to their fellow neighbors and friends. From halfway across the globe, people Western countries can stand next to these women activists in developing countries and let them know they have support.
– Hannah Vaughn
Photo: Flickr
Fighting Radicalization in Mauritania
The Mauritanian government, with the help of outside organizations, has been working to decrease radicalization in Mauritania since the early 2000s. While Islamic terrorist attacks have been effectively stopped, there are still concerns about the spread of extremist views throughout the nation as well as in the surrounding countries. Several Islamic extremist groups have bases in Mauritania, including Al-Qaeda. Fighting radicalization in Mauritania requires a multi-faceted approach that tackles the factors contributing to radicalization and proactively dissuades extremist views from being able to gain traction.
Factors Contributing to Radicalization
The common problems many impoverished countries face include high unemployment, food insecurity, violence and political turmoil, all of which cause great suffering. These issues can sometimes make individuals more likely to adopt extremist views.
In Mauritania, unemployment is high, particularly for the youth with approximately 18.6 percent of 15 to 24-year-olds unemployed. Combined with poverty and a disconnect from political and civic life, this creates a population of young people who feel disillusioned by the options available to them. These individuals may then look for alternative and sometimes extreme methods through which they can exhibit their frustrations.
A majority of the Islamic jihadists in Mauritania are middle or low-income people, the majority of whom are below the age of thirty. Underemployment and delinquency are two additional factors common in the experiences of these individuals.
Racism in Mauritania
Another contributing factor to radicalization in Mauritania is ethno-racial tension. Conflicts between Arab and black Africans go back as far as the 1960s with the government giving preference to the Arab population. For example, when Arab leaders gained control of the nation’s education system, they reformed the system according to their values and mostly excluded black Africans from administrative positions.
Black Africans are also excluded more generally from society. Even those who have assimilated to the Arab culture are more likely to be illiterate, viewed as second-class citizens and sometimes denied basic rights. In combination with the poverty that many black Africans face, these genuine grievances contribute to the appeal of extremist views.
Additionally, it is important to note that much of what Islamic extremists are protesting – authoritarianism, torture, corruption and Mauritania’s relationship with the West – are genuine grievances. While extremism is never tolerable, the presence of these significant problems will continue to create a context in which extremist ideas are considered attractive.
Fighting Radicalization in Mauritania
The government’s efforts to combat terrorism have included arrests, raids, strengthening border control, improving military and intelligence capabilities and cooperating with the United States. While this is an important part of reducing the threat of terrorism, it is also important to implement programs and policies intended to prevent radicalization in Mauritania.
In 2015, the Ministry of Youth and Sport and UNDP created the National Strategy for Youth and Sport to encourage youth participation in society as a method for preventing radicalization. A youth center in the city of Nouakchott began providing opportunities for young people to discuss the problems as well as their aspirations for the future. Young people also participate in educational programming that teaches them important skills for employment. Discussion forums hosted by the center help train young people to recognize and resist extremist rhetoric and give them the tools to engage in productive dialogue in their communities.
One high school student indicated that her goal is to become a surgeon, but without the support of the youth center, she wouldn’t be prepared for this level of education. Another student expressed the desire to become a teacher and noted that he was “struck by the ignorance that still exists in poor suburbs, and by the lack of teachers in rural areas.” His hope was to be able to help by teaching in those communities.
Another participant noted that being unemployed and religious, he had been “tempted in the past by extremist ideas because of intense frustration,” but the center steered him away from radicalization through training sessions and debates. Over time, he recognized that he had a place in society and began to feel less disillusioned. Centers like the one in Nouakchott are essential for preventing extremism amongst Mauritania’s youth by providing an opportunity to engage in dialogue as well as prepare for a successful future.
Moving Forward
UNDP is also working with the government to create other projects aimed at fighting radicalization in Mauritania. It is focused on tackling the root causes. Starting with the youth is important, but based on the contributions poverty and ethno-racial tensions play in promoting extremism, these issues also need to be addressed more fully in counter-terrorism efforts.
Moving forward, extremism needs to be more fully recognized as a product of poverty and inequality. Efforts to decrease radicalization in Mauritania, therefore, should focus on decreasing poverty more broadly as well as promoting human rights for all Mauritanians. Only through a multi-faceted approach that seeks to tackle the factors contributing to extremism in the nation will fighting radicalization in Mauritania become truly successful.
– Sara Olk
Photo: Flickr
Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Mauritius
Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Mauritius
The island continues to prioritize health, education and boosting its economy, all of which are essential for the improvement of living conditions in Mauritius. With positive momentum building since its independence in the 1960s, the country propelled itself into a stable and productive future.
– Natalie Abdou
Photo: Pixabay
Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Germany
The world knows Germany, a Western European nation, for its rich history spanning back two millennia, famous cities, such as Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt and a festive culture that includes famous events, like Oktoberfest. However, the living conditions in Germany may surprise those who have not lived there.
Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Germany
Germany has a culture that focuses on efficiency, cleanliness and high living conditions. The population is falling, but the life expectancy is rising, while many educated Germans are able to join the growing knowledge sector in many major cities. Though the situation in the refugee centers is grim, Germany is processing many refugees every day to join the millions of people who enjoy the living conditions in Germany.
– Anish Kelkar
Photo: Flickr
Efforts to Improve the Maternal Mortality Rate in Malawi
The maternal mortality rate in Malawi has decreased over the years, but it is still an alarming issue that the country is addressing. It is estimated that per every 100,000 live births, over 600 mothers die from mostly preventable causes.
In Malawi, the circumstances of maternal mortality are complex but preventable. Like most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the health care system in Malawi is not as developed as the rest of the world. Having better access to health care and qualified personnel will save the lives of mothers and children in developing countries.
Causes of High Maternal Mortality
There are several causes related to the high maternal mortality rate in Malawi. Poverty is one of the main contributing factors. Given that half of the country’s population lives in poverty, most women cannot afford conventional health care.
The majority of the population live in remote, rural areas, making it difficult for mothers to find access to quality maternal health care. In many cases, they cannot travel long distances on foot to the nearest available clinic. According to a 2014 study, 44 percent of women in rural areas attended at least 4 antenatal care visits whereas, in urban regions, the figure jumped to 51 percent.
In Malawi, women have historically given birth in their homes due to cultural beliefs and practices. In most cases, traditional birthing attendants were present. However, many of them were not trained to respond if something were to go wrong. This most commonly occurred in impoverished families. Today, the country recognizes the need for professionally trained personnel. In 2015-2016, 91 percent of women were recorded giving birth in a healthcare facility.
Most maternal deaths are related to diseases or complications during pregnancy or childbirth. The most common direct causes of maternal death are:
The indirect causes include malaria, anemia, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. In most cases, these diseases or complications would have been preventable if there was better access to health care.
Improving Malawi’s Maternal Mortality
Due to foreign aid, and the dedication of the Malawian government, the maternal mortality rate in Malawi is improving with every year. In 2001, out of 100,000 live births, 868 mothers died. Today, that number is significantly lowered to just over 600.
Former Malawian president, Joyce Banda made maternal health her top priority in 2014. Through her influence, the government of Malawi constructed new maternal health facilities in rural areas, created a new system to better train birthing attendants and changed cultural norms and attitudes regarding maternal health and pregnancy.
Banda also believed in the importance of educating young women about their reproductive health. A survey on Maternal and Perinatal Health has shown that women with lower levels of maternal education are at risk of high maternal mortality even if they have access to health care facilities.
Banda made lasting changes in Malawi for the women and children of today and the generations to come.
USAID Investments to Improve the Maternal Mortality Rate in Malawi
The United States financially supports Malawi by investing in maternal and child care. USAID is investing in maternal health facilities and quality care interventions in order to progress the country’s healthcare system. USAID is also supporting national family planning programs that promote maternal education and informed decision-making for the mothers of Malawi.
As the country continues to develop, the maternal mortality rate in Malawi is decreasing.
Due to more accessible facilities, better-educated mothers and the addition of trained professionals, the status of maternal health care in Malawi has made significant strides.
– Marissa Pekular
Photo: Flickr